Wednesday, April 01, 2009

All Fools Day ruling

Today, April 1st, the Court of Appeal ruled against the NFU's challenge to Defra's tabular valuation system, brought last year on behalf of several farmers, but headed by David Partridge.

Handing down the appeal judgment, Lord Justice Lawrence Collins admitted his colleague in the initial case had ‘delivered a comprehensive and careful judgment’ but ruled that there was no discrimination in Defra’s approach to the valuation of high value animals.

He said: “I accept the Secretary of State’s submission that the true value of any animal once it has tested positive for TB is the salvage value of its carcass.

'The salvage value of its carcass' ? Hmmm. If that is the case, tabular valuation could go lower. Much lower. One wonders whether the learned judge would have formed the same opinion had the sentinel victim of Defra's non-policy on bTB, been his own animal? Carcass value, and him powerless to prevent a repeat performance? Farmers Guardian has the story.

The NFU, which backed the case, said it was deeply disappointed at the outcome and would now be considering the next stage in the legal process.

This could involve an appeal at the House of Lords which could yet overturn the Court of Appeal’s decision. More here

Meanwhile, during March another anomaly raised its head on those infamous tables. Once again, as we reported a year ago the 'value' of a non-pedigree dairy cow, over 36 months, outstripped her pedigree herd mate by £110. April tables can be seen here and still show a £62 advantage for leaving your pride pedigree certificate in the filing cabinet.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I notice that Trever Lawson or any of the badger trust never answer or remark on any thing on this blog now!!! With the figures and grafts that you have on this site, they cannot have an answer for their misguided cause.Blondie

We have had a good link from NZ, and graphs which show their eradication policy. Will try and get the boss to post it. It mirrors our old 'clean ring' strategy and has almost got the country to 0.2% incidence. TB free status. For cattle and wildlife.